Introducing Islamic inscriptions to newcomers to Islamic civilization and history, this work explains the importance of inscriptions, showing where they are recorded and how they can usefully supplement known documentary evidence. A fully annotated bibliography provides further reading on all aspects of Islamic epigraphy.

A vital reference for everyone interested in Islamic inscriptions on buildings, objects and works of art. This beautifully illustrated book explains the importance of Islamic inscriptions and places them expertly in their historical and cultural context. It shows you how to decipher and interpret inscriptions and provides a standard for recording them. In addition, a fully annotated bibliography provides further reading on all aspects of Islamic epigraphy. Winner of the British Kuwait Friendship Society Al-Mubarak Prize 1999 for the best academic work on the Middle East

This book discusses a highly-debated research topic regarding the history of the Arabic language. It investigates exhaustively the ancient roots of Classical Arabic through detailed tracings and readings of selected ancient inscriptions from the Northern and Southern Arabian Peninsula. Specifically, this book provides detailed readings of important Nabataean, Musnad, and Akkadian inscriptions, including the Namarah inscription and the Epic of Gilgamesh. In his book, the author, a known Arabic type designer and independent scholar, provides clear indisputable transcriptional material evidence indicating Classical Arabic was utilized in major population centers of the greater Arabian Peninsula, many centuries before Islam. He presents for the first time a new clear reading of Classical Arabic poetry verses written in the Nabataean script and dated to the first century CE. Furthermore, he offers for the first time a clear detailed Classical Arabic reading of a sample text from two ancient editions of the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, separated by more than1000 years. Throughout his readings, the author provides verifiable evidence from major historical Arabic etymological dictionaries, dated many centuries ago. The abundant of in-depth analysis, images, and detailed original tables in this book makes it a very suitable reference for both scholars and students in academic and research institutions, and for independent learners.

This book studies the surviving 79 monumental inscriptions from the Iranian world that date to the first five centuries of the Muslim era (ad 622-1106). Each is presented with photographs, drawings, transcriptions, translations and an extensive commentary, which explains the text in its larger historical and artistic context.

Architectural inscriptions are a fascinating aspect of Islamic cultural heritage because of their rich and diverse historical contents and artistic merits. These inscriptions help us understand the advent of Islam and its gradual diffusion in Bengal, which eventually resulted in a Muslim majority region, making the Bengali Muslims the second largest linguistic group in the Islamic world. This book is an interpretive study of the Arabic and Persian epigraphic texts of Bengal in the wider context of a rich epigraphic tradition in the Islamic world. While focusing on previously untapped sources, it takes a fresh look into the Islamic inscriptions of Bengal and examines the inner dynamics of the social, intellectual and religious transformations of this eastern region of South Asia. It explores many new inscriptions including Persian epigraphs that appeared immediately after the Muslim conquest of Bengal indicating an early introduction of Persian language in the region through a cultural interaction with Khurasan and Central Asia. In addition to deciphering and editing the epigraphic texts, the information derived from them has been analyzed to construct the political, administrative, social, religious and cultural scenario of the period. The first survey of the Muslim inscriptions in India ever to be attempted on this scale, the book reveals the significance of epigraphy as a source for Islamic history and culture. As such, it will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian Studies, Asian History and Islamic Studies.

Isabelle Dolezalek wurde für Ihre Arbeit mit dem 2018 ICMA Annual Book Prize des International Center of Medieval Art ausgezeichnet. Auf zahlreichen mittelalterlichen Objekten finden sich arabische Inschriften. Nur wenige davon wurden jedoch für lateinisch-christliche Auftraggeber produziert. Die normannischen und staufischen Königsgewänder aus Sizilien bilden eine bemerkenswerte Ausnahme. Welche Assoziationen sollte der Gebrauch arabischer Textilinschriften bei den zeitgenössischen Betrachtern im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert hervorrufen? Wie wurden die Inschriften in späteren Zeiten rezipiert? Die transkulturell und interdisziplinär ausgerichtete Studie beleuchtet praktische und politische Entscheidungen, die der Produktion der sizilischen Textilinschriften zugrunde liegen, und lenkt so das Augenmerk auf ein Ornament, das konventionelle kulturelle Grenzen nicht nur überschreitet, sondern grundlegend in Frage stellt.

Inscriptions on buildings are a distinctive feature of Islamic architecture, and this book studies the 79 surviving monumental inscriptions in the Iranian world from the first five centuries of the Muslim era (A.D. 622-1106), the period in which all the major trends of monumental epigraphy in the area were set. These foundation, commemorative, and funerary texts come from the region between Iraq and Soviet Central Asia. Written primarily in Arabic, they embellished architectural monuments and furnishings whose nature implies the construction of major buildings. An extended introduction discusses such general topics as titulature, patronage, and stylistic development. Each text is then presented individually with photographs, drawings, transcriptions, translations and an extensive commentary, which presents the inscription in its larger palaeographic and historical contexts.